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The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

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Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#151

Post by throwaway6734 »

leereeves wrote: post #108
chomp wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you or your wife look at the past and current price of lettuce in the local store and then use that to make the conclusion that the purchasing power of the US Dollar has decreased 47%, then I don't know what to tell you. Your cost of living may have increased, but I do not understand how you can conclude an increase in inflation from living your daily life.

I know that my total grocery bill (not just lettuce) has more than doubled in the past few years. Gas too. "The purchasing power of the US Dollar has decreased 47%" sounds about right.

No it doesn't

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#152

Post by Redoubts »

landemva wrote: post #148
sofixa wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who knew all that free money from the last decade would do that! As if a war where one of the largest fossil fuel exporters, also exporting enormous amounts of foodstuffs, invaded the biggest exporter in some foodstuffs (grain, sunflower oil, etc.) and a pandemic with all the death, lowered economic activity and lockdowns have nothing to do with the current economic situation. Oil and gas prices are up, and they're…

> Oil and gas prices are up, and they're a factor in pretty much every other product's price. True. So why did it make sense for USA to restrict oil pipeline build and reduce oil drilling permits in past 18 months? USA was energy independent a few years ago, and now POTUS asks Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for energy. This is a strange turn.

> So why did it make sense for USA to restrict oil pipeline build and reduce oil drilling permits in past 18 months?

Because "Russia is going to do something stupid" wasn't on the radar then.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#154

Post by yonaguska »

Aeolun wrote: post #139
chomp wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm super skeptical of posts like this because they seem cherry picked, or at best, have local price increases that aren't reflected elsewhere in the country. Half of those are restaurants, who have had challenges for the past 2 years outside of inflation. Gas has its own challenges, a head of lettuce at my local grocer is $1.52 which is cheaper than that person's 2021 price. Notably not included in that post is thin…

Hmm, I’m not in the US (Japan), but all prices have been rising. On top of that the yen went from 110 per $ to 140 per $, so that by itself inflates half of my recurring costs by 30%

I started my matcha addiction at the wrong time it seems. Just bulk ordered a bunch of tea from Japan, and while the dollar is relatively strong, it wasn't cheap. Still cheaper than Starbucks every day though, which is how I'm justifying it.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#155

Post by symlinkk »

RC_ITR wrote: post #129
lend000 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's irrelevant when that's the cheapest new vehicle, most working Americans need a car, and despite better fuel efficiency, it isn't really that much cheaper to own a car. Hedonic adjustments make sense in theory, but in practice it's a loophole to make inflation whatever the government wants it to be. In the case of vehicles, they clearly went overboard. The counterargument to hedonic adjustments is that almost…

> But it's irrelevant when that's the cheapest new vehicle, most working Americans need a car, and despite better fuel efficiency, it isn't really that much cheaper to own a car. Hedonic adjustments make sense in theory, bpractice it's a loophole to make inflation whatever the government wants it to be. The average new car in the US lasts like 2x longer than it did in 1998. Shouldn’t that factor in?

No

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#156

Post by UncleMeat »

dagw wrote: post #143
chomp wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm super skeptical of posts like this because they seem cherry picked, or at best, have local price increases that aren't reflected elsewhere in the country. Half of those are restaurants, who have had challenges for the past 2 years outside of inflation. Gas has its own challenges, a head of lettuce at my local grocer is $1.52 which is cheaper than that person's 2021 price. Notably not included in that post is thin…

beef has had 4 straight months of decreases Even that’s uneven in my experience. Cheap ‘bulk’ meat isn’t up much, but ‘fancy’ meat (local, organic, grass fed etc.) is up over 30% where I am. Although I suspect that is at least partially due to “price gouging” the more price insensitive customers that buy that sort of product

My area has the inverse. Cryovac ground beef is way up but both the fancier stuff at the grocery store as well as the local stuff at the farmers market is roughly the same.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#157

Post by spaetzleesser »

RC_ITR wrote: post #129
lend000 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's irrelevant when that's the cheapest new vehicle, most working Americans need a car, and despite better fuel efficiency, it isn't really that much cheaper to own a car. Hedonic adjustments make sense in theory, but in practice it's a loophole to make inflation whatever the government wants it to be. In the case of vehicles, they clearly went overboard. The counterargument to hedonic adjustments is that almost…

> But it's irrelevant when that's the cheapest new vehicle, most working Americans need a car, and despite better fuel efficiency, it isn't really that much cheaper to own a car. Hedonic adjustments make sense in theory, bpractice it's a loophole to make inflation whatever the government wants it to be. The average new car in the US lasts like 2x longer than it did in 1998. Shouldn’t that factor in?

“The average new car in the US lasts like 2x longer than it did in 1998. Shouldn’t that factor in?”

Absolutely not. Where do you stop with this game? Do you factor in that the seats are better so people go less to the doctor for back pain?

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#158

Post by neural_thing »

Redoubts wrote: post #152
landemva wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oil and gas prices are up, and they're a factor in pretty much every other product's price. True. So why did it make sense for USA to restrict oil pipeline build and reduce oil drilling permits in past 18 months? USA was energy independent a few years ago, and now POTUS asks Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for energy. This is a strange turn.

> So why did it make sense for USA to restrict oil pipeline build and reduce oil drilling permits in past 18 months? Because "Russia is going to do something stupid" wasn't on the radar then.

Oil leases have been canceled by the Federal government since the Ukrainian invasion https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/12/politics/interior-gas-leases-...

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#159

Post by seanmcdirmid »

hgomersall wrote: post #138
konschubert wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation is when the ratio of / grows. This can happen by the numerator growing (your (a)) or the denominator shrinking (your (b)).

A moment's consideration would show that's too simplistic. Money available has been growing for years without any notable inflation. It's not like we all rush out to spend every bit of income we have, a fair amount gets saved which effectively neutralises it.

A lot of the extra money was being plowed into real estate or the stock market, preventing inflation from happening elsewhere outside of the real estate or stock markets. Interest in saving accounts was too low for the money to just be saved.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#160

Post by throwaway6734 »

neural_thing wrote: post #158
Redoubts wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So why did it make sense for USA to restrict oil pipeline build and reduce oil drilling permits in past 18 months? Because "Russia is going to do something stupid" wasn't on the radar then.

Oil leases have been canceled by the Federal government since the Ukrainian invasion https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/12/politics/interior-gas-leases-...

>Due to lack of industry interest in leasing in the area, the Department will not move forward with the proposed Cook Inlet [Outer Continental Shelf] oil and gas lease sale 258," Schwartz said.

You're pushing a bad faith argument

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